Taming the British Playboy

Chapter 1: Get Off Your Royal Arse

Brandon turned off the alarm and forced himself out of bed. On most days, he woke up even before the alarm went off. It was an unspoken challenge between him and the gadget that had been going on for years.

The truth was that he was never a big fan of sleeping. It felt like a waste of that time when one could be enjoying the wonders of life – dating, partying and drinking.

The last one sounded particularly appealing right now. He needed a mug of strong coffee with his usual shot of brandy nicely added to it.

With less than two hours of sleep, he needed to pump some energy into his body to survive the meeting with his friends in the prison which Khalid called his office. He’d never understand why a wealthy and successful son a Sheikh needed to work in an office. He could travel to any spot in this vast world with his laptop and work from there.

Just like Alexander always did. The half-Swede was great at saving money on something by not spending money on something as useless as an office building–even if he was a self-made billionaire, or perhaps because he was a self-made billionaire in the first place.

Brandon was glad his royal blood had provided him with enough wealth to not need any kind of office or to run any business himself. His lawyers and wealth fund manager made sure he always had enough money for his parties and he never really needed more than that.

Life’s too short, my noble friends, life is made for partying, he’d always say and that was enough justification for the thirty-year-old illegitimate son of a British lord to free himself of any responsibility that society would impose on him. If he had food, drinks and sex – and enough money to pay for all of it – and not necessarily in that order of priority – he was content with everything.

This morning, though, he felt slightly uncomfortable as his three best friends were forcing him to attend a business meeting and discuss an investment all four of them would be a part of. If those were not his lifelong friends – the true and only family that he knew – he’d have insisted that his wealth fund manager attended the meeting.

This wasn’t about money, though. He was going to invest no matter what, only because it was a project Khalid and Xavier were so excited about. He wanted to be a part of it because long ago they swore an oath – the young naive youth they were – they believed the words ‘One for all and all for one‘ would be enough to keep their friendship. They were wrong. Words were nothing. Friendship and loyalty were what kept them close for all these years. He’d wage everything he owned for every single one of those men.

And yet, that did not give them an excuse to call a business meeting at 8 a.m. Not when Brandon partied all through last night till five in the morning, and especially not when the meeting venue was not some elite sky bar, but a luxurious office on the hundredth floor of Al Qasim tower.

If only he weren’t born with the natural hate for being late and his royal roots did not force him to honor every single precious minute of other people’s lives, he’d consider running late for that meeting. He could maybe call some pretty chick to join him for breakfast, and a morning quickie to give him the energy boost he’d need for the meeting.

But no!

He quickly took a shower and made sure his royal arse would be on the hundredth floor at Khalid’s office at least ten minutes early. He could let his friends tease and mock him all they wanted, but nobody ever accused Brandon Hyde of being late for a meeting.

Khalid and Saleema were already in the office. He rolled his eyes as he stepped into Khalid’s office that occupied almost half of the top floor of the huge tower. Call Brandon old fashioned – which probably in most cases was an undeniable result of his heritage – but he did find it slightly inappropriate for the work environment to kiss one’s wife the way Khalid did when all the four walls of his huge office were made of glass.

“Go get a room,” he muttered as he closed the door behind him. The door was of glass as well. Why even bother to close it?

“Good morning to you too,” Khalid laughed. The arrogant bastard did not even flinch or shy away being spotted kissing his wife at his place of work.

“Are you always this grumpy in the mornings?” Saleema asked as she finally rose from her husband’s lap and came to give Brandon a good morning hug.

She was the best thing that had happened to his friend. Brandon couldn’t even believe it had been only a couple of months since this amazing woman had entered Khalid’s life and had managed to turn upside down not just his life, but everyone else’s.

“How is my little niece feeling?” Brandon asked very gently touching her swollen belly. He was still a bit terrified of being around the pregnant woman.

Firstly, he was afraid he could do something clumsy and accidentally hurt the baby inside her even with a very light touch.

But the second and the true reason was that the woman was the personification of the most violent mood-swings. She could turn from the sweetest angel to a fire breathing dragon in a matter of minutes only because she craved for some banana cake with salty sprinkles on top or something equally gross.

He did not envy Khalid. Lucky for him, Brandon did not do relationships and there was no such day on the calendar in the future of mankind that he’d ever get married. Never, ever…

Still, his little niece already meant the world for him. He was going to spoil her like a true princess when she is born.

“You know we still don’t know the baby’s sex, right? It might be a nephew, not a niece,” Saleema spoke in her calm voice, caressing her baby.

“I know she’s a girl. I can feel that” Brandon argued stubbornly.

Alex knocked on the door right at that moment, as if there was any reason to knock on a glass door when those inside, as well as those outside it, could see everything.

Brandon would never grasp the meaning of such offices. Anyway, with Alexander here, they could start the meeting. And the sooner they started it, the quicker he’d be done and then can go partying.

His stomach rumbled. He had skipped breakfast in order to be here on time.

“Hey, can we get some coffee and something while we talk?” he asked. Sounding grumpy as Saleema had already stated so nicely. “Isn’t that the whole meaning of having an office? That you have someone who is always happy to bring coffee and croissants or whatnot in the morning.”

“Well, some of us use it for other purposes as well, but it’s nothing your royal arrogance might be interested in,” Khalid laughed. “I’ll get my assistant to bring some coffee for us.”

“Two spoons of brandy in it, please,” he reminded. Though he knew he didn’t have to. His friends were aware of how he took his coffee.

“Of course,” Khalid nodded and winked at him.

“Is Xavier online already?” Alexander asked. Apparently, the Swedish-German businessman was in his worst business mood this morning and couldn’t care less about Brandon’s indelicate coffee ritual.

“Yes,” Khalid checked his laptop to make sure Xavier was there. He quickly typed a message to him. “Can you believe it? He still refuses to tell me where he `is!” His voice was raised a pitch higher as he shook his head in disbelief.

That was absolutely unlike Xavier. The man had never left Khalid’s side for more than a couple days and those were strictly for business reasons. Now, since he came to Khalid’s wedding with some mysterious girl by his side, he had been acting completely unlike himself. He had disappeared right after Saleema and Khalid left for their honeymoon, promising to explain everything when he was back. He had sworn that it was an absolute life and death situation he was dealing with.

To Brandon, that could only mean that the guy was hopelessly in love and had lost his mind over a chick. That was an absolute disaster. Within a year, he was about to lose his second closest friend to love. At least, Alexander seemed unharmed by that contagious disease. Otherwise, he’d be the only bachelor among them and that was no fun at all.

“Alright, we can start now,” Khalid said as he pressed the call button to connect with Xavier. In a moment, his face appeared on the flat screen on the opposite wall from Khalid’s desk. That console was connected to his laptop wirelessly.

“Good morning, everyone,” Xavier greeted them.

Brandon was the first to notice that it was dark outside the window behind him.

“Where exactly are you, man? It’s night-time there?” He asked as he slowly approached the console trying to catch more details.

“Oh. My bad. I thought I was careful,” Xavier laughed. “As I promised, I’ll explain it all real soon. Give me some time to sort things out and get back.”

“Blimey! You do sound weird, bro, too weird to my liking,” Brandon complained.

“Enough small talk, please. Some of us have businesses to run,” Alexander complained again.

Apparently, Brandon was not the only one in a grumpy mood this morning. He wondered what had caused Alex’s foul mood. Probably Talisha. Saleema’s cousin was the one person on this earth capable of ruining Alex’s mood as well as Brandon’s. Though, he’d prefer not to think about her right now.

“Right, so here’s what we have at the moment,” Khalid spoke. He made a small pause to make sure everyone was listening to him.

Brandon felt proud. His friend had changed a lot from the careless brat to the businessman who had successfully pitched the idea of his Hippodrome Royal and had already raised the forty percent initial funding needed for it.

Initially, it was Khalid’s father – who had promised to invest in the venture if his son married Saleema. Later, although his father was interested, Khalid decided to challenge himself and try to raise the funds on his own. He had managed to complete the deal while on his honeymoon.

Some people did combine business and fun after all.

Not Brandon, though. His life was made of joy and entertainment only – and that was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

“As we have agreed, the remaining sixty percent of the funds will be invested by us. Fifteen percent each. If everyone is still game, today we should seal the deal and appoint the one person among us who will take charge of the project implementation.”

Saleema looked at her husband proudly as he talked with so much authority in his voice. Brandon almost rolled his eyes. This couple was too sweet for his taste, too fluffy and sweet!

Everyone confirmed their interest and once Khalid officially confirmed it and said each of them would receive the contracts for them to sign; he quickly suggested that they proceed to the second – more important question – the person in charge.

“That should be Xavier,” Alexander was the first to speak. “He has been acting like a mother hen to all of us since we were students. Who else can take good care of our joint venture?”

Indeed. The four of them had been through fire and blood – literally – and much more, yet now they were entering a joint venture for the first time.

“I’m humbled, guys. But, as much as I’d like to accept the offer, I can’t build a Hippodrome while being away,” Xavier spoke on the screen. It was unusual to see him on distance. He should be here, nagging and keeping tabs on everyone.

“You are not planning to stay in your Mystery land forever, are you?” Brandon remarked. For all we know you are somewhere next door and trolling us.”

“If I were next door, I’d hurry over there to kick your useless arse, your royal prick!” Xavier teased. “Why don’t you take charge?”

“Me?” Brandon almost jumped off his chair. “Like hell?”

Everyone knew he was good for nothing. Everyone had come to terms with that trait in him. Yet, trust Xavier to try to bring him to the ‘right’ path.

“I wouldn’t trust my business into this blue-blood’s hands,” Khalid started and earned a poke in his rib from his wife.

Good thing, pregnant women cared about justice and protected those in need.

“On second thought, though,” he suddenly continued.

So, this was a trap! Brandon realized. Of course, it was. Xavier would not have offered it without first consulting with Khalid. And now Brandon had walked right into it.

“I am too busy with my future baby,” Khalid started listing the reasons why it should not be him.

“Yeah, it’s not the woman’s duty only to raise the child,” Saleema provided.

Since when did shy and timid Saleema become such a feminist? Brandon admired her, nonetheless. “The baby is not even born yet,” Brandon tried to protest but earned a frown from Saleema.

“Your niece can hear you, Bran! And she says that if you start educating your child after her birth, then you are nine months late!” Saleema rubbed her belly and Brandon immediately felt guilty for hurting his little niece’s feelings.

“Then why not Alex?” Brandon immediately tried to distract them.

“Maybe because I already have two multi-billion companies expanding across four continents…?” Alexander phrased the answer into a question while casually sipping his coffee. “Enough of being a royal slacker; just take the responsibility. It will not kill you. There is nothing hard for you to do and we all know you are more than capable.”

“And, we will all move to the countryside and be nearby if you’ll need help,” Khalid nodded. “Fresh air is good for the baby.”

“And I will be available online if you need legal consulting,” Xavier smiled.

Brandon was trapped! Cornered into this situation from where he could find no escape. And here was the end of his carefree rich life.

Brandon sighed. “So be it. Do not tell me that I haven’t warned you. Now that this matter is settled, I’ll go enjoy my last days of freedom.”